Jez Alborough was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey in 1959. After secondary school, Jez went to Art School in Norwich. After college, he spent two years as an editorial illustration freelancer, before he started writing and illustrating his own children's books. In 1984 his first book, Bare Bear, was published and in 1985 Jez was runner-up in The Mother Goose Award for this book. He has now written and illustrated over thirty books for children

Alborough and 500 schoolchildren in London embraced each other for fifteen seconds in a giant "hugathon," raising nearly six thousand dollars for charity and earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records in celebration of the publication of his book Hug.